Online Class Notes (Nick)

Review a movie (or show) that you watched recently. Was it a really good movie, or was it just the kind of thing that you watch when you don’t want to think but want to feel something?

OR

How do movies help normal people understand philosophical ideas? (like Inception, for example)

Vocabulary

Arnold Palmer – a famous golfer who used to like to drink a mixture of lemonade and iced tea; the drink is now named after him
Long-Island Iced Tea – a drink which actually doesn’t have tea, but is alcoholic and has soda

Procrastination – not doing something that you should; putting something off when you need to
e.g. If I get up early and get working, then I can sort of hold off procrastination.

Collateral – something you give to another person to guarantee that you will pay back a loan

Chest Beating – when some people, especially men who may be drinking, are challenging each other to a fight, or feats of strength, or bragging and calling each other names, like gorillas trying to showing their strength; usually this isn’t serious in terms of creating a serious fight

Herd Mentality – the tendency of groups of people to join what appears to be the group opinion, often making a situation more extreme (exacerbating violence, for example)

Exacerbate – to make something more extreme, intense, serious, etc.; to make something worse, usually by deliberate action or some negligent mistake
e.g. He had burned his hand while cooking, and when he later accidentally whacked that finger with a hammer, it exacerbated the swelling.
e.g. When he forgot to submit the contract to the legal department so that it was delayed and the customer bought from someone else, he only exacerbated the trouble he was in by becoming defensive and blaming other people for the problem.

Hazardous Waste – what in Shanghai appears usually to be called “harmful” waste

Parody – when you perform a funny version of something famous, like the scene where the Lion King is held up to the other animals on Pride Rock
e.g. These days it’s very popular to do parodies of that opening scene from the Lion King with their cats.

Feel-Good Movie – a movie without much artistic or plot depth, but that follows a familiar storyline and makes you feel good, that touches your heart anyway
e.g. Heidi was a feel-good movie.

Grammar

It taste sucks – it really sucked / the taste sucked
— “Suck” is a verb

He always have a lot of car parking in front of the street – He always has a lot of cars parked on the street / He always has a lot of cars parked in front of his house

He plant vegetable on his yard – He planted/plants vegetables in his yard

Worth to talk about – talking

Pronunciation

Exacerbate – eks – ass – er – bait